Thank you for the email. I received my evaluation. I feel that the evaluation system at this University places way too much emphasis on the discussion posts over everything else. Alas, it seems that no matter how many things I add (announcements, responding to every student during the initial week when they post information about themselves), it is never enough.  I don’t always post a question with every discussion post that I create, but I do on most. 

Now I see it is expected that we post six times in the discussion, not five, and that EVERY post must be more interactive. 

The other feedback I received was about grading. I post within each criterion to offer specific feedback on each area of the paper, yet again this wasn’t sufficient. They suggested I insert comments on each individual paper. The amount of time that would take… I have been an actual teacher in an actual classroom for 21 years, and I know how much time that would take. 

If the University would truly like to continuously increase their expectations for the adjunct professors without ever increasing their pay by even a dime, their expectations are unrealistic. I have been teaching here for fourteen and a half years and have pretty much never seen a pay increase. 

These are things I mentioned in my self-evaluation. 

I was offered the opportunity to evaluate myself, but what about student evaluations? As an educator in the public school system, 14% of my annual evaluation is based directly on student feedback. 

I wonder what my students would place emphasis on—how frequently I post in the discussions, or how frequently I respond to their messages, how tolerant I am of their tardy work, how accommodating I am to them by providing two stellar exemplars for each paper? 

Yet I will try my best to improve because that is who I am even though this job’s expectations and interactions with me are demoralizing at worst and mediocre at best. 

Thank you for your time.